Sad as it is to say, we’re on to the home stretch for the college football season as the conference title races start to narrow across the country and the chase for the College Football Playoff begins to come into focus. Though we’ve flown past the midway mark, there is a good thing about the calendar flipping over to month No. 11: just three days without any football from now until December when factoring in the NFL.

With the ninth weekend of the 2018 season in the books, it’s time to take a look at the best of the best and honor some of the top performances. Each week, Athlon Sports will highlight some of the top performers in college football with its weekly awards section. Here’s a look at Athlon Sports’ picks for the offensive, defensive, coordinator, team and freshman from Week 9:

Weekly college football top 25 rankings are a big part of every season, and Athlon Sports will update its top 25 following the games each weekend. The ninth weekend of the 2018 season was headlined by Georgia's win over Florida in Jacksonville, Kentucky's comeback victory over Missouri and upsets by Oklahoma State (Texas), Arizona (Oregon) and California (Washington). Alabama was off in Week 9 and remains the clear No. 1 team going into Week 10. Clemson checks in at No. 2 after beating Florida State, while Notre Dame remains No.

The Week 9 edition of picking every game on the college football schedule is highlighted by the Florida-Georgia showdown in Jacksonville; a surprisingly pivotal Big Ten game involving Iowa and Penn State; and a key Pac-12 North game on the Farm between Stanford and Washington State. Here is every game on the Week 9 slate:

College football’s 2018 season continues with a loaded Week 9 slate featuring 55 games from Thursday to Saturday night. Five matchups are on tap for Thursday night, including Baylor at West Virginia, Appalachian State at Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech. On Friday, another five contests are slated, including Boston College hosting Miami, while UCLA looks to build on its two-game winning streak with a home matchup against Utah.

Week 9 of the 2018 college football season continues on Saturday. That means it’s time to pick your optimal DraftKings college football fantasy lineup. Fortunately, our college football fantasy experts are ready to help. Players from 10 matchups are available to be selected on DraftKings for the Saturday Noon ET games and seven for the 7 p.m. ET window.

Here’s what our best Week 9 college fantasy football DFS lineup looks like for Saturday matchups:

Peruse the offensive statistic rankings of the USC Trojans, and they speak to the most consistent struggle of the 2018 season. USC is scoring 26 points per game, tied with Kansas for No. 87 in the nation; producing 239.3 passing yards per game, tied with SMU for No. 60; and at 116.9 rushing yards per game, is tucked between Southern Miss and Akron at No. 115.

As the calendar gets ready to turn to November, USC is facing a stretch of games, starting with Saturday's matchup at home against Arizona State, that could very well not only decide the outcome of its season, but the future of the coaching staff as well.

Hard as it is to hear or rationalize, we’re past the midway mark of the college football season right now. Following a wild Week 8 on the calendar that whittled down the field of undefeated teams even more, it’s as good a time as ever to take stock of what has happened in the sport so far.